During World War II, the airport was used as a military airfield by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. The 319th Bombardment Group briefly flew B-26 Marauders from the airfield between 25 April - 1 June 1943. After the Americans moved out their combat units in mid-1943, the airport was used as a stopover and landing field for Air Transport Command aircraft on the Casablanca-Algiers transport route. When the war ended, control of the airfield was returned to civil authorities.

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Contents

Facilities

Terminals

On 20 January 2012 the new Terminal 1 building was inaugurated, and the old terminal building (always called Terminal 2) closed. The terminal is 16,000 m² large and has a maximum capacity of 3.5 million passengers/year,[3] more than twice the capacity of the old terminal.[4]

Ground transportation

by airport bus shuttle: Express bus shuttle from the airport to the train station Rabat city, priced at 20 dhs (MAD), about 2 euros. Scheduled departures correspond with flight arrivals/departures.

FROM the airport : 30 minutes after flight arrival.
TO the airport: 3 hours before flight departure.

by private shuttle: Private shuttle from the airport to Rabat center, priced between 300 and 500 dhs (MAD), about 30 and 50 euros.

by local bus: Line No. 2, but you have to walk outside, out of the airport, 5 minutes walk to the bus station next to supermarket ATACADAO Bus ticket price is 4 dh (MAD) about 0, 40 euro.

Statistics

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

357,773

372,1454,02%

351,8675,45%

485,71338,04%

684,21340,87%

705,9503,18%

873,16923,69%

923,5765,77%

987,4856,79%

Incidents and accidents

On 12 July 1961, a Czech Airlines (CSA) Ilyushin Il-18 en route from Zurich Airport to Rabat–Salé Airport diverted to Casablanca Anfa Airport (GMMC) after receiving weather info indicating ground fog at Rabat–Salé. As the conditions at GMMC were also poor the captain of the plane asked permission to land at Casablanca–Nouasseur (CMN), then a USAF base. While GMMC controllers contacted American authorities the plane crashed 13 km SSW of GMMC. All 72 on board (64 passengers, 8 crew) died. The exact reason for the crash was never discovered.[8]

On 12 September 1961, an Air FranceSud Aviation Caravelle was en route from Paris–Orly to Rabat–Salé Airport. The weather conditions at the time were non-favourable: thick fog and low visibility. The pilot informed traffic control it intended to land using the non-directional beacon (NDB). Traffic control warned the pilot that the NDB was not in-line with the runway, but this message received no response. The aircraft crashed 9 km SSW of the airport. All 77 on board (71 passengers, 6 crew) died. The exact reason was never discovered but investigators reported errors in instrument reading as the most likely reason.[9]